7#

$3.95

8#

$3.95

9#

$4.95

10#

$5.95

11#

$4.45

What is Cheap Hosting ?

Deciding to use a cheap hosting is not necessarily a bad decision; in fact, many major web hosts are offering affordable packages to survive in the competitive industry. As a smart customer, you should watch out for good deals. Low-cost hosting packages may be available for a starting annual price of $10 or less. However, they may only deliver basic features and services. This shouldn’t be a surprise.

A web host is a company that is in business of renting servers (simply, glorified computers) and selling online access (bandwidth), so people can see what you’re trying to share or sell. Web hosts resell their products in smaller bits (packages) so they can get good profits. Some small-scale web hosts even rent others’ servers, buy a bandwidth, use a basic control panel (hosting management suite) and resell them as “hosting plans”. Their goal is to price these small packages affordably while ensuring a maximum profit.

Since there is very little barrier in this industry, many new web hosts are popping up every day. This fact helps to keep the cost of hosting plan low and the service quality reasonable, since many web hosts are competing in the industry. Eventually, one Johnny-come-lately thinks that the only way his company can grab some public recognition is to offer an even lower price. Once, the customers spread the news, many web hosts struggle to match the price. Before you know it, web hosts have slashed their prices significantly.

Obviously, when you choose to seek cheap hosting, there is a bigger chance that you’re stuck with a bad web host. Luckily, with proper steps, you can minimize the risk:

1. Check the customer service and technical support

As with any online business arrangement, it is important to have good communication. If you have a query or problem, you should be able to seek help immediately, regardless of the fact that you choose the cheapest hosting plan from a company. Your ability to post a question and get useful answers quick is very important. Even a small-scale, cheap web host should be able to provide 24-hour technical support service. One good way to find out is to call the customer service after midnight, preferably at weekend, to find out whether the web host can provide help, whenever you need it.

2. Security, reliability and features.

You should put enough emphasis on essential requirements of your blog or web site. When choosing for a cheap hosting, you should make sure that it offers adequate bandwidth, disk capacity and up time warranty. Obviously, you should prepare a list of your prioritized requirements and make sure the web host can provide them. For example, the cheap hosting may support free platforms such as PHP and MySQL, which is sufficient for most purposes. Security, reliability and performance are important for any web site, don’t let the low price make your site hackable easily, goes down frequently and slow. If it happens to you, you’re being ripped off!
Fantastico and cPanel are intuitive management tools that can help you tweak your site and install preferred website platform. Some cheap hosting plans provide poor management tools, which won’t get you very far.

3. Money back guarantee and low overall price

Money back guarantee is a promise that an affordable web host will deliver a satisfactory service, despite the low price. It is also a sign that the web host is both honest and confident about its service. You should be aware that some cheap web hosts have many hidden charges, for example, they may put a restriction on the bandwidth and the database size. Consequently, as your web site grows, you may be forced to pay much more.

Pros and Cons of Cheap Hosting, Is it Really Worth it?

For many webpage owners, cheap web hosting is an attractive alternative to paying a princely sum each month to keep a webpage running smoothly. Cheap or even free hosting can be a sufficient storage plan for many people who plan on running websites. There are, however, downsides to skimping when it comes to any online service. A cheap web host can be a boon to an individual or a small business, but there are potential risks in this money saving endeavor.

The Pros of Cheap Hosting:

Individuals who want to run a personal website may not need to pay for expensive web hosting. Small websites with a few pages or a blog do not take up much space on a host’s servers, so a hosting company can store this data cheaply. Many companies will offer blogging or web design software for free to attract customers. In some cases, these free services are an incentive to upgrade to a paid plan that includes a domain name, extra storage space, multiple email addresses and other perks. Other hosting services rely on ad support to make up for their operating costs. Users can make websites for free as long as they do not mind having advertisements on their sites.

For small businesses, cheap hosting can be a way to cut the costs of starting a new company. In this interconnected age, most companies need websites to attract new customers or sell products. If a store does most of its business in the physical realm, it may not need a complex website to encourage new visitors. A single page with a map, a schedule and an overview of the store’s merchandise may be enough to lure customers. Pages like this require very little data and almost no maintenance. A cheap host may be enough for a simple website.

In some cases, high quality hosts offer their services cheaply. A web host without the “bells and whistles” of a more user friendly site might be able to store large amounts of data at a low price. These sites cater to clientele who know how to code an advanced website. These programmers do not need site builders, premade templates or blogging software to design a professional site.

The Cons of Cheap Hosting:

Anyone who wants to avoid aggressive marketing should consider paying extra for web hosting. Free or cheap web hosts often make their money by convincing clients to upgrade to a more expensive service. Some web hosts keep costs down by running ads on the sites they host. This can detract from a user’s experience and make a business’s webpage look unprofessional. Before choosing a cheap host, it is important to look at other websites hosted through the same service to make sure that there are no intrusive advertisements.

A website owner who plans on getting a lot of traffic should consider upgrading to a more expensive plan or looking for a pricier host. The bandwidth required to display a webpage is a large part of any host’s operating costs. When a flood of visitors tries to view a page at the same time, the sudden increase in bandwidth usage may exceed the caps set by a cheap host. This will make a site unavailable to potential viewers or customers during periods of high traffic.

Site owners who need to store a large amount of data will find that cheap hosts usually have limited storage space. Anyone who needs to store a high volume of images, videos, sound clips or other data intensive files should expect to pay for the extra space. Pricey hosts may also offer perks like extra email addresses, premium templates and advanced site building software.

How to Choose Cheap Hosting ?

Web hosting allows businesses to make their websites accessible to the world through the World Wide Web. There are numerous web hosting choices present for businesses and individuals who want to host their personal websites. However, different options contain different costs and people are generally looking for cheap hosting solutions.

Options such as dedicated hosting or cloud hosting are better in terms of the features offered, however, these are expensive and may require you to purchase a virtual space on a web server or buy physical servers. One cheap hosting option is shared hosting. If you are looking for tips to select cheap hosting, read on.

1. Determine Your Needs: The basic step in finding any kind of hosting is to first determine your own preferences and needs. If you require specific tools which are not available in cheap hosting options, then cheap hosting is out of the question. Make a list of all your requirements such as the maximum storage required, data transfer limit, database options etc. These will make the searching process easy.

2. Define Your Budget: The next thing to do is to determine your budget and the funds that are available to you. Once you have determined the cost, you can easily set a limit to the cost of the hosting plan. However, while setting a budget, you need to be aware of the payment and subscription offers of hosting companies. Most companies require you to sign up for yearly, two yearly or 3 yearly subscriptions.

3. Reliability: Cheap hosting does not mean that the quality of hosting services is also poor. Therefore, check out the uptime guaranteed by the company. Also check out the technology used in their data centers such as monitoring of data, security options, data backup as well as the power alternatives in the event of power outages. If the company has good and enough power alternatives, you do not need to worry that your website will stay offline when the power fails.

4. Resources and Features: You should already be evaluating your hosting company based on resources and features which you highlighted while making a list. However, you should also compare the features and resources with the cost of the plan. Sometimes, the plan may seem to be cheap as compared to other hosting plans, but when you compare their features and resources you might find out that it is actually more expensive. Therefore, look out for features such as databases, available email accounts, number of email addresses, media support, cart tools, spam protection, virus protection etc. Also, check if the resources such as the bandwidth and data storage space are enough.

5. Customer Support: Customer support is an essential part of all hosting services. If the support is not good, you will find yourself in a fix. You might require competent and appropriate support while setting up your website or adding in content to the website. Check out the accessibility options and availability of the customer support

Following the above mentioned tips while selecting a cheap hosting provider will allow you to maintain quality while paying low.